Press

The images created by James Stanford are mesmerizing. Built upon photographs of iconic — and often long-gone — Las Vegas signs and scenery layered upon one another, the photo collages resemble mandalas, representations of the universe found in Buddhism.

And if using images of Las Vegas’ glitz to create almost spiritual iconography doesn’t represent a melding of the sacred and the profane, what would?

Stanford is a native Las Vegan and pioneering local artist whose latest exhibition, “Shimmering Zen,” highlights his nearly 40 years of work creating photo collages that become more than mere visual trickery. > Read More

Using historic Las Vegas neon signage and architectural elements from the 1950s and 1960s, shot in the Mojave Desert, Stanford artfully creates digital montages, mesmerizing designs using unique newly developed purpose specific technology. Stanford’s group of intriguing digital reconfigurations convey and respond to the potency of the mandala as a symbol, and its influence and importance to Asian culture worldwide.

American artist James Stanford’s visually stunning and intricately constructed modern mandala series, Indra’s Jewels, will be premiered during Asian Art in London 2017. This event brings together over 60 of the world’s top dealers, major auction houses and museums for an annual ten-day celebration of the finest in Asian art. Visitors will converge on London for the 20th anniversary edition, which offers gallery selling exhibitions, auctions, receptions, lectures and seminars.

Stanford had this statement regarding the show: ‘It is with great pleasure that I agreed to participate in this important event. I hope my work will not only be enjoyable for visitors, but will introduce them to the great diversity of Buddhist-inspired artwork being produced today.’

As a leading contemporary interpreter of the ancient traditions of Buddhism, Stanford draws from historic metaphor, Chinese fable and the aesthetics of the Tibetan mandala. His conceptually complex and visually sumptuous work, in which the mandala functions as a way to contemplate both immaterial and material realities, has attracted significant interest through gallery and museum exhibitions in recent years.